Thanksgiving part 2

Just to ensure you all that we did not starve on Thanksgiving, here is the picture to prove it:

Though, because we had to work on Thursday, we celebrated on Sunday when we could actually make the food. There was no turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pie, cake, rolls, or most of the really yummy stuff, but we made due.

Not gonna lie... for out first big holiday away from our families, I think it turned out pretty all right!

Thanksgiving

Our first holiday without the family.
We made it though, and without crying, even!

Because Thanksgiving is only observed, and not celebrated/a holiday, we had to work. The kids from school had brought in food and clothes to give to selected families in need around the community.

Throughout the day, classes would leave with a couple of boxes and deliver it to families. Alex was able to accompany one class (lucky!), but I missed out.

We went home and started to scour the internet for Black Friday deals on laptops. Turns out, we both use the laptop a lot. Turns out, we have a hard time sharing the laptop.

We cooked dinner. It was no Thanksgiving feast. We'll be doing that this weekend when we have time to cook.

We watched The Office like we usually do when we have dinner.

Then we Skyped with Alex's family who was having dinner at Danny and Mandy's house. We got to see the new baby (Adele), and our other nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles. It was good to see everyone and how they've changed over the course of just 3 months.

After our chat, we watched the rest of our episode (we're on season 4 right now), and went to bed.


Even though we did not get to eat turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, pumpkin and apple pies, cakes, and other delicious goodies, it wasn't a bad Thanksgiving.


I am thankful for our families: that they didn't cry because it was our first holiday away from home, for supporting us in our adventures, and that they were able to talk to us on Thanksgiving.

I am thankful that we were actually able to cook decent food now so that we don't starve.

I am thankful that we have internet. If we didn't have skype/facebook and online shopping, I don't know what we would do!

I am thankful that this year, we have full time employment and that we're going to be able to save some money this year, on top of taking some sweet vacations and having the free time to write, read, and create.

Word.

busy busy

Not going to lie... we took our vacation at the best and at worst time.

Best because the students had quite a few tests to take in our classes, and pretty much anyone can proctor a test. It was easy for us to get away.

Worst because it was at the beginning of the second partial (or quarter), which means that we needed to grade anything that we hadn't already, grade exams, and get our grades in. If not before we left, then right after we got back.

When we got back Wednesday afternoon, we were beat.

We had just traveled for 24 hours by bus and boat, and slept in a random hotel the night before.

Thursday, we had tests to grade and Friday we needed to hand our grades it. It was a whirlwind, let me tell you!

And this was in addition to planning lessons for the rest of the week, and trying to get prepared for the next week.

So, here we are. We've been back for a week and a half.

I think we are pretty much caught up on everything. 

The only thing that has been kind of lacking is my contribution to this blog, picture editing, and actual cooking of food.

This week, I think because we've been so swamped, we have literally not done anything for dinner. Some nights it was PB and J, and some nights it was take out tacos.

On the upside, we finally found a restaurant that sells tacos Mexicanos and actual nachos. Delicious!

So, today we will cook some food and I will edit some pictures for this blog. 

I know I keep saying this, but it will be up soon! 

In other news, Alex has taken an interest in computer programming. 

He's downloaded some ebooks about flash game making and is pretty into it. The hope is that if he really likes it, and is good, he will go back to school for it. 

Only time will tell.

traveling makes me tired

I have to say:
Traveling really takes the energy out of me!

We have been back for a whole week now, and I'm still exhausted from our trip.

I think part of this has to do with the fact that we stayed up late while we were in Belize, and our schedule is out of whack.
But, I think traveling is just tiresome.


I have come to realize that I do not particularly enjoy traveling.
Oh, I like being on vacation all right. But, if it takes more than an hour or so to get there, it's going to wear me out!

Any other world travelers out there have the same experience?


I will work on those blogs this weekend. For realz.

phew! that's better...

I thought it was looking a bit too cramped over here.

Some of the information that I was posting really just wasn't relevant to you. It was probably boring.

You really just want to see all the pictures and sweet adventure stories.

So pictures and sweet adventure stories you shall have!


All of those information dense posts about travel and teaching are now on a different site, which you can still get to by clicking on either of those tabs at the top of the page. But you do not have to if you're not into that sort of thing.

All of the other stuff, the good stuff, the most interesting stuff, is going to stay right here.

Organization!


This week I will be posting pictures and stories from our visit to Belize. There will be chocolate, there will be nature pictures and cave swimming, and Mayan ruins.

Until then, here is a picture to help take your mind away from the cold and rain/snow in your world.

for as much traveling as we did today, we didn't get very far....

We were on track.
Well, we were late for school, but at least we had our clothes, toiletries, and some food.
We got more minutes for our phone, our schedules planned out for the days we were gone, and money on our person.

We left with Marco after school. Though he was going to San Pedro, to the east, and we were headed west, we all had to start at the same place.

We boarded a packed van/bus, that I'm pretty sure was meant for about 10 people, that was over capacity by at least 33 percent. It made it fun at first though. We were on our way to Guatemala, a new country, where we'd face new challenges. The excitement and anxiety was all bubbling to the surface, making even the simplest things fun (i.e. I saw cows in the road and started laughing... I see cows in the road almost everyday.)

When we got to the main road, a bus was waiting. Marco said, oh, that is your bus! A boy ran up to our incoming bus and started yelling "Ocotepeque". He was in a hurry, but we were stuck behind the elderly people climbing out. We retrieved our bags from the top of the van/bus and ran across the street to catch our bus.
Part one complete.

Once we arrive in Ocotepeque, we are instantly asked where we're going. We say Esquipulas, but they know we mean Agua Caliente (the last town in Honduras on your way to Guatemala). We get on the bus, and nearly an hour later, we are at the border.

When we get off the bus, we are bombarded by about 5 guys. We didn't know if we were just supposed to change buses or what, and they wanted to change us money. We had stashed our money in various places (money belt, pocket, wallet, socks) and we knew that we needed to get all of it out in order to change it. It felt awkward revealing all of our hiding spots. But, I knew that the exchange rate was fare (1000 lempiras = 400 quetzales), so I didn't feel too bad.

Then this guy started speaking English to us. He asked us where we were from, and if we knew a lot of Spanish. Then he told us he was going to help us out. We didn't really know what that meant because we can really handle our own, but he insisted and took us over to the border patrol.
He asked for our passports. Then he asked us if we had the little yellow pieces of paper that we got when we arrived in Honduras.
Turns out, we didn't have them.

The English speaking fellow tells us that he's going to try to help us out. He said that we might be able to work out a deal to get us in for a price. Well, of course there is a price!

At first, he tells us that it's going to be about 2,500 lempiras each (about $130 each). Then he said he might be able to get it down. The next offer was 2,500 lempiras for both of us. Well, that was better, and we definitely did not want to go all the way back home, but we didn't bring enough.
We tell him that it's too much. He tells us to give him a number. I tell him the most we could do is 200 lempiras ($10). He said, oh, well the guy is going to want at least $50 usd from each of you. We tell him that we can't, and that we'll just go home.

All this time, the guy is trying to convince us that our papers at home might be missing, or thrown away. I assure him that we know where they are, that we have an apartment and no one has moved into it or thrown it away. In between negotiations, he would go talk to his posse of fellas while smoking a cigarette.

We finally decide that it's too much and that we will just go back to San Marcos to get our papers. They didn't seem too happy, but relented. Then we asked to exchange some of our money back, and the kid who helped us in the first place was trying to be difficult. He was speaking fast, and mumbling, and wasn't too helpful when we asked him to talk slower.
Finally, we got were able to exchange our quetzales for lempiras, enough for the bus back home and then back to Agua Caliente, and then left.


We are happy that we did not get scammed, though a little irritated that our travel plans were set back a couple hours. Tomorrow, we are leaving between 5 and 6am to try to make it to Puerto Barrios as early as possible. Hopefully there will be no problems then.

Belize it is

We have decided, after much persuasion, to go to Belize in order to renew our 90 day tourist visas. We are still quite unsure how long we must go in order to renew (we've heard as little as a couple of hours to as much as three days), but we've decided to play it safe and go for three days.

We will be leaving Friday after school and will return Tuesday afternoon/evening.

We are very uncertain about how to get where we want to go, as there aren't bus schedules online. We just have to wing it and hopefully we'll find our destination on time.


We've decided to just stay in (beautiful?.. I hope!) Punta Gorda, Belize at a bed and breakfast run by a British couple. It's called Hickatee Cottages. We wanted to go on a specific date, and the room we wanted was already booked, so they upgraded us for free! It's pretty sweet.

While we're there, we will be able to see a butterfly farm and we're (hopefully if we booked it in time) going to go on a tour that involves a trek through the forest, swimming by waterfalls, and seeing how they make chocolate! It was a little expensive, but I think it will be awesome and worth it.


Like I said before, we're a little anxious about being able to navigate the buses and getting where we need to be on time (we have a ferry to catch Saturday morning, with a second chance in the afternoon). But, we've decided already that it's just going to have to be an adventure, and we might get lost, and we might have a difficult time, but we have to do it.

Luckily, if worse comes to worst, we have one more week after this to renew our visas. We might be able to just catch a flight to Florida and hang out there. That's only if we don't, for some reason, make it to Belize.


We're not taking our computer, so if no one hears from us by Wednesday then probably someone ought to call the embassy. I don't think anything will happen, but just in case!

When we return, I will post about which buses we caught and at what times, about the ferry in Puerto Barrios,  our accommodations, our chocolate tour, and the food. We'll be sure to take as many pictures as we can and we'll share those as well.


Until Wednesday....

dodging poo

Yes, I should say that Alex and I are pretty good at dodging the poop that litters the streets of San Marcos.

Everyday, we walk to school. It's about a 10 to 15 minute walk, depending on how energetic we feel.
And everyday we must always look down at our feet and the two and a half foot semi-circle around us to make sure we're not endanger of stepping in any poop.

A lot of times, the poop is easy to spot. This would be the cow poop.
It's in huge piles and is generally black when wet. When it dries, it looks like dead grass, I don't mind stepping on it.

Other times its dog poo. This poo can look very different from pile to pile. Sometimes its normal brown. Other times we've seen it babypoop yellow and green.

Then there is poop that kind of looks like dog poop but maybe is too big to have come from a dog. I suspect that it may be human poop, though I've never seen anyone poop (though I have seen plenty of males pee in a bush or wall) around here.

Luckily, the only time I have stepped in poop is when I was in the cow pasture during my milking adventure.


And thank god.
Poop is gross.